THE UCLA CENTER FOR IN VIVO IMAGING IN CANCER BIOLOGY

加州大学洛杉矶分校在PET仪器、化学、分析和应用方面存在生物成像问题，在癌症生物学、检测和治疗方面有强大的项目。四年前，PET项目的赫希曼博士发起了一项合作，将细胞和分子生物学的原理与分子成像相结合。他们与巴里奥、切里、甘布希尔、萨亚穆尔蒂和(后来)丰田章男博士一起，启动了一个项目，以非侵入性、重复和定量的方式在活体动物中监测报告基因的表达。这次合作开发了两个PET报告基因，多巴胺D2受体和单纯疱疹病毒胸苷激酶，它们的异位表达可以通过系统给药的正电子标记探针的Pet报告基因依赖的隔离在体内进行监测。这项技术已经在加州大学洛杉矶分校进行了验证，无论是用于基因治疗的病毒传递基因，还是用于重复监测基因表达的转基因动物模型。加州大学洛杉矶分校ICMIC的目标是将新的体内成像技术转化为癌症研究。四位杰出的研究人员：吴宏、查尔斯·索耶斯、欧文·威特和阿诺德·伯克，以及我们最初的基因成像小组，正在提出利用活动物中的microPET来回答癌症的启动、进展、转移、血管形成、免疫调节和基因治疗方面的问题，否则这些问题将很难解决。我们的专业资源旨在为不精通成像分析的研究人员提供服务。我们认为，这批在癌症研究中应用成像技术的优秀新人将起到催化作用，并通过我们的ICMIC发展基金计划为这项新技术吸引更多的教员。我们还认为，对(I)新的和现有的癌症研究人员以及(Ii)新的和现有的成像研究人员，在这些学科的界面上进行实验室和教学培训，是培养下一代癌症研究人员的主要方式--他们将把这种界面视为无缝的。我们的职业发展部分将提供一个协作的实验室环境和一个量身定做的教学计划，旨在为个别受训人员融合这些学科。

UCLA has biological imaging problem based on PET instrumentation, chemistry, assays and applications, and a strong program in cancer biology, detection and treatment. Four years ago Dr. Herschman, PET Program, initiated a collaboration to merge the principles of cell and molecular biology with molecular imaging. With Drs. Barrio, Cherry, Gambhir, Sayamurthy and (later) Toyokuni, they initiated a program to monitor, in living animals, the expression of reporter genes in a non- invasive, repetitive and quantitative fashion. This collaboration developed two PET reporter genes, the dopamine D2 receptor and the Herpes Simplex Virus thymidine kinase, whose ectopic expression can be monitored in vivo by the Pet reporter gene-dependent sequestration of systematically administered positron-labeled probes. The technology has been validated at UCLA both for virally delivered genes for gene therapy applications and in transgenic animal models for applications to repetitively monitoring gene expression. The goal of the UCLA ICMIC is to translate new in vivo imaging technology to cancer research. Four outstanding investigators; Hong Wu, Charles Sawyers, Owen Witte and Arnold Berk, along with our initial gene imaging group, are proposing projects that utilize microPET in living animals to answer questions in cancer initiation, progression, metastasis, vascularization, immune modulation and gene therapy that would otherwise be difficult to approach. Our Specialized Resources are designed to provide investigators not versed in imaging analysis. We think this initial outstanding cadre of recruits to imaging applications in cancer research will be catalytic, and draw additional faculty to this new technology through our ICMIC Developmental Funds Program. We also regard laboratory and didactic training at the interface of these disciplines, for both (i) new and established cancer investigators and (ii) new and established imaging researchers, as the major way to develop the next generation of cancer researchers-who will view this interface as seamless. Our Career Development Component will provide a collaborative laboratory environment and a tailored didactic program designed to merge these disciplines for individual trainees.